


Survivors

by Perth (Ikana_Trash)



Series: ASS-Ventures [1]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Basically, Canon Divergence isn’t too big, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Gen, M/M, Original Character(s), POV Alternating, POV Multiple, POV Outsider, Seen a lot of Teacher Jon AUs, Teacher Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, This ended up being, but not teacher, but one thing I saw on Tumblr brought up teacher AU but during Apocalypse, my OCs trying to survive during the apocalypse then they come across Jon and Martin, so it’s that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:07:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28139673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ikana_Trash/pseuds/Perth
Summary: Basically the Fear Apocalypse happens but some of my OCs survive and now they’re trying to survive in the wasteland, when they come across Jon and Martin...More than once
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Original Female Character/Original Female Character, Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Series: ASS-Ventures [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2085531
Comments: 1
Kudos: 24





	1. Intersection

When everything broke, She was in the middle of English class. Thorn felt bad that she was was initially happy to be let out at school early, especially considering the current... situation... Only a few of her classmates even... made it to the apocalypse stage of it. They tried to stick together as a class at first. They really did. But the whole thing began to take a toll on everyone. The class size was 24 before the apocalypse happened. Then, what they’d come to know as ‘the Big Bang’ happened. Their number was whittled down by about half and there was about 15 of them. Other students from other classes joined them, as well as a few college or university students. Their group was about 30 people before meeting another person became a rarity. While they travelled the wasteland, they encountered other students from school. Some people Thorn knew, some people she didn’t. Her best friend had been in Math, if she was remembering correctly, but she didn’t keep her hopes up. She’d already witnessed some of her classmates die.

After a few... days? Hours? Months? No one could tell, but after what felt like a long period of time, people began to leave the group. One kid, Darius, if Thorn’s memory served right, left after he had a fight with their unofficial leader, Lusmon. He wanted to go looking for his friends, but Lusmon, and everyone else by extension, wanted to find a safe place to take shelter. Darius ran off sometime while they were sleeping and he hadn’t been seen since. The next kid to leave was actually three kids. Thorn couldn’t remember their names, she never bothered to get to know them, but they left together, claiming that they just wanted to be alone, not with other people. Soon enough, more people were starting to split off, and the group was only 5 people.

Lusmon was now their official leader, appointed by unanimous decision once they realized only five of them remained. She was the oldest, being the only University student among them, and she truly acted like the oldest, and so everyone put her in charge.

Lusmon’s second in command was a quiet boy Thorn never really talked to. They never seemed to have classes together, not even once, despite being in the same grade. His name was  Quinten , and over the course of however long, everyone had come to both respect and fear him. While quiet most the time, the few times he did speak it was... unsettling. But he seemed to be able to handle himself so he was second in command.

Then there was a shy boy named  Draire , the youngest of their group, being a grade 10. He never really talked, at least, not in the beginning. As their group was whittled down, he began to open up more, and eventually he was acting in ways none would’ve expected from the shy and quiet kid. He was louder and much more crude then everyone would’ve thought, but he was also fun. They all enjoyed his company.

Briar was an American transfer student, coming over in the middle of grade 12. She spoke with what Thorn believed to be a southern accent, but she wasn’t too well versed in American accents. That aside, she was pretty kind, If not a bit blunt at times. She seemed pretty close with Quinten, as in, she was the only one of their group who didn’t seem to fear him in any way.

Then there was herself,  Thorn . She thought of herself as the most bland of the group. Just a normal kid, who got average marks in school, blending in with the rest of the grade 11s. She did used to be in Girl Guides, though, so everyone was constantly going to her for advice.

There was also  Sarah . She was easy to miss, but it never seemed to bother her, and if it did, she never spoke out about it. Thorn tried her best to get to know her better, after all, they had had a few classes together before the whole apocalypse thing, but she always seemed to reject her advances.

And... That was their group. Their Apocalypse Survival Squad, or as Draire liked to call it, ASS. It had been his suggestion, and they adopted it as a joke, but now, they had grown fond of the name. They were... ASS.

* * *

It was some sort of unspoken rule or law to not mention the giant eye or its accompanying smaller eyes in the sky. Even immediately after the Big Bang, no one seemed to want to vocalize their concern. They tried their best to ignore it, and for the most part, they did. 

They hadn’t been counting the days, they could hardly tell, but once they named themselves ASS, they decided to count the days. They would sleep and when they woke up, they would count that as a new day. It may not have been accurate, but it helped. 

It’d been about a week since they established themselves, when they came across a giant burning building. An absolutely massive building. It was huge. There was no way they’d be able to simply walk around it. Thorn turned to look at Briar to see if she was thinking anything else as well, but when she turned to Briar, she noticed Briar was staring at Quinten, so Thorn followed her gaze to Quinten. He had... a strange look on his face. The same look that he always got on his face whenever they came across these... Cursed Locations.

That’s the name they’d given them. Every once in a while they’d run into a cursed location where something was happening. Sometimes it was as simple as a door popping out of nowhere only for a dark-skinned lady with abnormally long fingers to walk out. They’d encountered her a few times, and soon came to know her as Helen after the third time they met. Other times the cursed location was... an empty house. A house with... nothing but fog. A lot of fog. Thorn shuddered at the memory of the Fog House. They’d lost 11 people from their original group of 30 when they finally got out of the Fog house. 

Quinten would always get this weird look on his face whenever they arrived at a cursed location. It was almost a smile, but not quite. It didn’t seem malicious, and Quinten wasn’t a bad guy, he was just... weird. He wasn’t evil.

And so, the Six of them stared at the burning building, listening to the cries of pain coming from within. They hadn’t been to a cursed location that already had people in it. Quinten continued on with his weird stare and questionable smile when Lusmon clapped her hands together, gaining everyone’s attention,

“Alright, ASS, we have a big location ahead of us...” Lusmon tried her best to be encouraging and positive as she spoke, “But, uh... hopefully we can get through. If we stick together, we’ll all be fine!” Draire gave a ‘whoop’ from behind Thorn to which Briar responded with her own ‘wooo’,

“So, is, uh, is the plan just to... run through?” Thorn spoke up,

“Well, uh... we can’t just walk around it, can we? We’ve learnt that once a location appears it can’t be skipped or avoided,” Lusmon answered hesitantly, adjusting the sunglasses she always wore, 

“I think... The flames of the past will be the only ones to burn us,” Quinten muttered, causing everyone to turn and look at him, “what?”

“What is it supposed to mean!” Draire spoke, voicing what everyone else was thinking. Quinten shrugged,

“You may never know for a chance to gain the knowledge may never show itself,” Draire sighed and slowly nodded,

“Okay, sure, fine, whatever...” He paused to give one last glance to Quinten before turning to Lusmon, “so, we going in today, or do we wanna go to tomorrow and sleep?” 

“That’s a good idea, let’s sleep,” Lusmon nodded. With that, everyone took off their backpacks and pulled out all the blankets and towels and additional clothing they were able to scavenge, and laid it out.

Tomorrow. They’d enter tomorrow, when they woke up.

* * *

Thorn found it disturbing how easily she was able to fall asleep with all the yelling happening in the background. She didn’t even expect to fall asleep, but the screams of the people in the building didn’t really bother her. She fell asleep as easily as she normally did, and that fact scared her. She was glad she was able to get to sleep, of course, but the fact that the screams didn’t bother her, well, that bothered her.

Nonetheless, when she woke up, Lusmon and Quinten were already up and waiting, with Draire, Sarah and Briar still sleeping. They waited until Draire, the last to awake, finally awoke and they prepared themselves for the journey.

Everyone was preparing themselves both mentally and physically. Lusmon was muttering something about a wedding, Quinten stared at the building with his usual creepy look, Briar was doing exercises to warm herself up, Draire was sitting on the ground, closed in on himself as he prepared mentally, and Sarah doing some sort of breathing exercise. Thorn was pacing back and forth, trying to keep her mind elsewhere. 

After what felt like forever, Lusmon stomped her feet as she clapped, getting everyone’s attention,

“We are going in, now! I hope you’re all prepared, this one seems like it could be the worst one,”

“Wow, what happened to trying to stay positive?” Draire commented,

“You and I both know that I’m not actually optimistic about this,” Lusmon threw back before turning and walking to the building, not saying anything more. Everyone looked to each other and nodded silently, following Lusmon.

* * *

“So, we’re really going into the giant burning building?” Martin was clearly nervous. Jon didn’t need to...  see  That to know it. He was too, but he found it easier to hide how he felt. Jon simply nodded and took a breath in, “O-Okay, I-I’m ready, let’s.... Lets go...” Martin stuttered nervously, trying to compose himself. Jon gave another nod and was about to take a step forward when he... saw the presence of five- no, six, avatars. He paused. They weren’t exactly avatars, it was more like... people who had a statement to give, “J-Jon? Y-you’ve gone quiet, what is it? Is it Jude Perry? Helen?” Jon shook his head, 

“No, it’s uh... I’m desperately trying not to know about them, I know you don’t like it and I’m sure they wouldn’t like it, but there’s, uh... there’s six survivors nearby. With statements,” Martin’s eyes widened,

“Really! Other Survivors! That aren’t trapped?” Jon nodded,

“They’re nearby, come, let’s... let’s look for them, they should be just behind the pile of rubble, just out of... sight...” Martin nodded, and they began their walk,

“Do you know if they’re good people?”

“I can tell they’re not malicious. One of them is American. Huh...”

“American? Really?” Jon shrugged,

“Might’ve been on vacation when this happened,”

“You know what happened, what’s an American doing here?”

“School,” Martin let out a breath,

“Okay, so, uh? What else about them?” Jon stopped and looked to Martin,

“I thought you wanted me to not... snoop around in other people’s’ heads?”

“W-Well, it’s just, well, we d-don’t know them, a-and well I just- It’s, uh-“

“They have no intention of hurting us. They’re kids. And I really am trying not to know. So far, all I got was the fact there‘s an American, there’s six of them, and they’re all high school age, with the exception of one. That and they all have statements... as in, before this all happened, they’ve all had encounters with an entity or an avatar or artefact, or what have you,” Martin nodded slowly, 

“O-Okay... well, when we see them try not to, uh... Know,” 

“I’ve got a better grasp on this knowing thing, I think I can... restrict myself,” Martin smiled and they continued walking. It took longer than what they thought it would, but after some time, they were finally within eyesight of a group of six young kids,

“There they are,” 

“I-I’m gonna run up to them. Don’t wanna startle them, right?” Jon nodded, letting Martin run up to the small group, waving as he got their attention. 

Despite his best efforts, when Jon caught their faces, he instantly knew their names. Still, he was happy enough with himself that he didn’t catch anything else about the kids.

First was  Lusmon , the oldest of the bunch. She had somewhat long hair that was dyed a Wine Red sort of colour and wore mainly black and dark pink colours. She had sunglasses on despite the lack of sun and the cap she had on her had shadowed some of her face.

There was  Quinten , who had strange, Yellow eyes. He wore large, square glasses and had messy, pale brown hair. His colours seemed to be gray and pink. He also... had a surprisingly blank face. There was not a lot of emotion in his gaze as he watched Martin approach them.

The next kid, was a... young man? Maybe? Jon was honestly confused by it. The eye was telling him that the kid was a female, however said kid dressed more on the masculine side and something in himself, unconnected to the eye, was telling him that the kid was a male. He’d just refer to the kid with They/Them until he learnt which it was. The kid’s name was  Draire , and they had undoubtedly the darkest skin out of everyone. Not as dark as Helen, but more close to Jon’s own skin tone. Draire had long, Dark brown hair that was swept to one side, almost obscuring the left side of their face. They too had glasses resting on their nose, hiding bright green eyes, though their glasses were rounded unlike Quinten’s. Draire seemed to have a thing for the colours white and beige.

Then there was the American,  Briar . Her hair was dyed a similar colour to Lusmon’s, though hers leaned more into dark pink then wine red. Her hair was tied up in two, high ponytails, leaving her big, weird, Purple eyes easy to see. Briar’s colours were a bit all over the place, but it seemed that she stuck with Orange, Blue, White and Pink.

Thorn was next one, and she had tired, dark blue eyes. Her eyes almost reminded Jon of himself. Her pale Blonde-Brown was quite short, with one bit of her bangs almost covering one of her eyes. Thorn’s colours were very clearly green, blue and purple.

Then...  Sarah . Right, the last one, Sarah. The way she dressed reminded Jon of when he had seen Gerry. She had the same sort of aesthetic going on, with all dark colours, though she did have the occasional Green accessory that matched her dark green eyes. Other than that, Sarah really didn’t have much going on.

“And this, over there, is my boyfriend, Jon!” He heard Martin introducing him just as he finished his own thoughts, 

“Yes, hello, you all,” The fact that these kids had all had previous experiences with the fears was much more obvious now that he was closer, but he blocked whatever information the eye was trying to tell him about them,

“Okay, well, I’m gonna guess you didn’t hear us, so!” Lusmon clapped her hands together, “my name is Lusmon, I’m the leader of ASS!” Lusmon introduced herself. Martin switched his gaze to Quinten, who was silently staring at him and Martin, 

“and uh, That’s Quinten. He, uh... He, uh, doesn’t talk much,” Draire spoke up, “and I’m Draire, by the way. Please use He/Him for me,” Well, that solved that, he didn’t even need to ask Draire, he just told him, 

“I’m Briar! Nice to meet you, buddies!” Briar pipped up enthusiastically, earning a huff from Thorn,

“My name is Thorn,” Jon nodded,

“Sarah. My-My name... it’s uh, it’s Sarah,” Sarah was quiet, but he was luckily able to just hear her. Not like it mattered, he already knew her name,

“So, what are you two doing?” Lusmon was the one to speak up, “you’re the first people we’ve seen in... well, uh... time’s weird, but you two are the first people we’ve seen in a really long time,” 

“We’re uh, just trying to, uh, y’know, trying to figure out what’s happening and how to stop it,” Martin answered, trying his best not to stammer or tumble over his words,

“That’s cool! We’re just tryin’ to stay alive!” Briar cut in with her own comment, though morbid. Quinten nodded in agreement,

“Dying would not be fun, though to be faced with mortal danger, it would not be unwelcome,” 

“I’m sorry, what?” Martin quickly questioned the moment Quinten was done, causing the others to look at Quinten with a slight expression of fear, excluding Briar,

“Don’t worry ‘bout him, he says weird, ominous shit like that sometimes!” She smiled, but not a nervous smile or a scared smile. It was a genuine smile, “we’ve gotten used to it, sor-“

“You’re the only one who’s used to it, Briar,” Draire interrupted, causing Briar to scoff, 

“Yeah, whatever, point is, he sometimes says weird things,” Martin turned to Jon as the kids began bickering amongst themselves,

“So, you said that they, uh, had statements from before this?” Martin whispered. Jon nodded,

“Don’t know which ones, that’s something they need to tell me,”

“A-Are you going to ask them?”

“Ask us what?” Martin jumped back at Sarah’s sudden voice from right next to him, while Jon let out a breath, 

“You knew She was there!” Jon nodded, 

“Yeah, I was planning on explaining to them anyway,”

“Explain what?” Sarah questioned yet again, 

“We’ll explain. Uh... can you get their attention?” Sarah looked to Jon and Martin then the the rest of ASS then nodded. She took in a deep breath and clapped her hands together, making a loud noise, grabbing everyone’s attention, 

“Yeah? Sorry, we’ve been together a while now, sometimes we just fight like that and- You get the idea,” Lusmon spoke up with a weak smile, “what is it?” Jon took in a deep breath, 

“Are... How... What is your knowledge on the current events?” Lusmon gave him a strange look for a solid second or two,

“Well, its like, the apocalypse. First there was the Big Bang, and that killed a bunch of people. Then there’s, like, Cursed Locations, those also kill people. That’s what we’ve decided to call them though, you probably have a different name for them. There’s also, like, no time? Or something? Time doesn’t move or something? None of us really get it so we just decided to count days as whenever we wake up after going to sleep,” Lusmon finished. Jon slowly nodded,

“Okay, well, that is not at all what this is... It’s, uh, well-“

“Let me explain, Jon,”

“Martin-“

“You’d use big words and explain too much. I can explain it more simply,” Quinten gave Martin a weird look, “I’m not saying you guys are dumb or anything, It’s just-“ Martin paused, “It’s just... really complicated,” Lusmon nodded, along with Briar,

“Go, Explain! We’re listening!” Draire cheered.

And so... Martin explained, with Jon cutting in every once in a while. Quinten’s expression stayed pretty neutral through out the whole explanation, but the others were constantly reacting and asking questions. It was hard to tell what exactly Quinten was thinking, but with the way the others acted, Jon didn’t even need the eye to know how they felt about the whole thing. 

When they finally finished with their explanation, the two of them gave the group some time to take it in.After who knew how long, Jon was broken from his thoughts by Lusmon tapping on his shoulder,

“So, you said that you, when you worked at the institute, you read statements, right? And they were kinda like, uh, food?” Jon nodded. He had a feeling he knew where this was going, “well, I think I have one to give! That is, if you’re still taking them,” Martin raised an eyebrow, 

“Really?” Lusmon nodded,

“I figured it might help, and if those statements are like, food, well, I figured you want mine,” she shrugged nonchalantly,

“I- well.. sure, hold on,” Jon dug into his pockets and pulled out his tape recorder, “Glad I brought the tape recorder with me, then!”

“Hey, Wait!” Briar called, “Me too! I got a thing to say! A statement! That! I got one to give!”

“Oh, are we giving statements?! I’ve got one!” Draire cut in,

“Really? I guess me too! I can give one, too!” Thorn added on, followed by Sarah quietly nodding her head, signally that she too had something to give,

“I too wish to deliver a statement of my own, I believe it will satisfy you well,” Quinten said quietly, finishing it with everyone now offering to tell a statement,

“Oh, uh, well, I’ll just... I’ll take one. You can decide who can give it to me,” They all looked to each other and nodded like they already knew,

“Lusmon will give hers first!” Draire announced, bowing to Lusmon,

“Excellent, now...” Jon paused and clicked the tape recorder on, “Statement of Lusmon... sorry, last name?”

“Lusmon Kart,”

“Statement of Lusmon Kart, regarding... “

“Regarding the unstoppable mould at my old house,” 

“ _Statement of Lusmon Kart, regarding the unstoppable mould at her old house. Statement taken directly from subject, recorded by The Archivist..._ you may begin,” Lusmon nodded nervously,

“ _Okay, so, a couple years ago, me and my family had to move houses cuz there was this really bad mould growing everywhere in the house. It was, like, really bad. It stunk up the entire house._

_ It started as mould in the bathroom. We obviously assumed it was Mildew. I mean, it looked like, and when I took a photo and asked the internet what kind of mould it was, everyone seemed to agree that it was mildew. So, my dad bought some of that cleaner used for killing mildew, and we killed the mould. But the next day, the stench was even stronger and the mould was back, but, like, it had doubled. There was a lot of mould. When my Dad tried to use that cleaner stuff on it, though, it didn’t die or disappear. It remained undamaged by the stuff we were using.  _

_So, my mom called in a specialist. Guy came in, inspected the bathroom, gave us some advice, and dipped. Mans fucking left and acted like it was nothing, like the Mould meant nothing. It was very clearly a cause for concern, but no, the guy told us not to bother with it-_ “

“I’m sorry to interrupt you, but do you perhaps know this person’s name?”

“ _Uuhhh... I think... Maybe... uhhhh... I...ummmm... No, I... I really can’t remember the guys name, sorry,_ ”

“What about company? What company did he work for?”

“ _He was a solo dude. Didn’t work for any company. My mom doesn’t like spending a lot of money if she doesn’t have to, and the guy was apparently really cheap, so of course she hired him,_ ” 

“I see. You can continue, now,” 

“ _Right, Right, Yes, okay, so... The guy told us that we shouldn’t worry when it was pretty obvious that it was definitely something to worry about._

_ My dad was with me, he agreed that we shouldn’t trust the guy, but my Mom was insistent that we trust him. It was a two to one, and my dad is kinda the head of the house hold, so we closed the bathroom door and just... didn’t go in there. It’s not like it was the only bathroom in the house, but the smell was horrid. _

_My mom got some air freshener and we’d spray the bathroom everyday to mask the smell. It... worked for a little bit... Then the mould grew under the door and out into the hallway. This time, my dad hired a proper dude froma company I can’t remember the name of. Now, that guy, he couldn’t identify the mould. He said it kinda looked like Black mould, but was acting like... some fancy mould name, I don’t know, I’m not a mould-ologist. Either way, he couldn’t figure out what to do, either. At that point, my mom and dad decided that we were gonna move. I was still in grade 11 at that time, but luckily we were able to find a house nearby that allowed me to continue attending the same school. And... that is really it. It’s... not really that... supernatural-y now that I’m thinking about it, but after hearing you explain about the Corruption, I thought that that might be what the mould was,_ ” Lusmon finished. Jon nodded,

“ _Statement ends,_ ” he clicked off the recorder and let out a breath, “Thank you. It does seem that it was in fact the Corruption that invaded your house. You... Your family is strangely competent compared to others who have had similar encounters,” Lusmon let out a quiet laugh,

“My Great Grandpa had apparently died from Lung Cancer due to him smoking, and well, moulds can cause respiratory issues, and none of us wanted to go out like my great grandpa,” 

“I see... Well, we must get going now... I hope everything turns out well for you six,” 

“W-What?! W-We’re just gonna LEAVE THEM?!” Martin cried, “They’re children, Jon! We can’t just leave them!”

“And what? Take them with us?! They’d have a better chance at survival on their own! Now they now everything that’s happening, they can deal with it better! But we need to hurry up!” Martin glanced over to the kids,

“It’s fine! We were doing fine on our own, and now that we know what’s happening, we’ll do even better!” Quinten nodded in agreement while Draire cheered. Briar and Thorn gave thumbs up and Sarah remained silent and smiled,

“Yeah, we’ll be fine!” Draire echoed with his usual cheer. Martin turned to Jon and let out a long, exasperated sigh,

“Your decision, Martin,” 

“I... Are you kids sure you’re okay?” Everyone nodded, “I... I guess that’s settled, then... uh... goodbye, I guess?” Once again, all the kids nodded and waved as they watched the two older men enter the giant burning building.

“So... let’s go in, shall we?” Lusmon turned to look at the rest of ASS,

“I’m good to go!” Briar raised a hand,

“Me too!” Draire agreed,

“Me and Sarah, too!” Thorn piped up.

“I too am ready to face the flames,” Quinten spoke, causing everyone but Briar to shudder at his voice,

“Then let’s go!”

* * *

The journey through the Fire building was less painful then Briar was expecting. Sure, the Flames were intense and hurt a lot, but they eventually made it out. They’d almost lost Sarah, but luckily Thorn was able to get her back before they lost sight of her.

In the end, the Cursed Location wasn’t as bad as it seemed. They decided to keep their names. They may have been made aware of the 14 fears and the avatars and such, but it was easier for them to use their own words. They knew what was happening, anyway, they were just using their own words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by this fan comic on Tumblr, done by User Everchase! Check them and the comic out!  
> https://everchase.tumblr.com/post/621452705067630592/youve-heard-of-teacherjon-but-i-raise-you


	2. Cross Roads

Some more time passed, about a month counting by the ASS calendar, when they came across yet another Fog house,

“W-We really have to go in there? Really?” Draire’s voice was shaky as he stared at the Lonely’s manifestation,

“Y-Yes, we do... we just... we’ll get separated, and once we’re in there, we just... need to find each other. We’ll... we’ll be fine...” Lusmon took in a deep breath, “Better get it done with as quick as we can. Let’s go,” she didn’t even turn back to see everyone’s reactions. 

* * *

“Hey, how’d I get here?” She couldn’t figure out where she was. Or who she was, “who am I?” She held a hand out and turned into over, looking at her hand. She then raised her hand to comb it through her hair, which she noticed was a wine red sort of colour, “pretty colour...” she commented. She then noticed that she was sitting at a chair, in an empty room. Well, mostly empty room, at least. There was a table in front of her, with a small, cardboard box and an even smaller metal container. She picked up the box, curious, and noticed it had some weight to it, and that there was something in it, or multiple things in it. Curious, she open up the box, and out fell multiple small, white sticks with brown at one end, “oh God, what are these called again? Someone I know always carries these, ugh, can’t remember... uhhh...” She concentrated hard on the sticks before her and picked one up, carefully inspecting it, “hmmm... I think... I think it starts with a C... A CIGARETTE!! That’s it! It’s a cigarette!!” She clapped her hands together, happy that she was able to remember, “okay, so, then, what’s this, like, Metal thingy?” She switched her gaze to the small metal object. It had some sort of slider-button thing, that when pressed, opened up the top of the metal thing, resulting in a fire spawning, “Woah!! That’s cool! Why’s it here? Where even is here? Who am I?...” She paused, “Wait, what’s these things called,” she looked down to the white sticks on the table, “I know this is called a Lighter... But... hmmm...” her train of thought was quickly drifting away.

* * *

“WHERE AM I?!” Briar was angry. She’d been trying to figure out where she was for the past however long, but the only thing she’d managed to get was her name. Nothing else was coming to her. Absolutely nothing. There was something in the room she was in, but she didn’t know what it was. It was some sort of rounded, circular, kinda flat object with knobs all around. It was almost a wheel, but all the bits poking out would make it really hard to use. Briar just... couldn’t figure out what it was or what it meant. Or where she was or why. It was making her angry, “WHAT IS HAPPENING!! I’m getting pissed!!! God!! I hate this!! Why can’t I remember anything?!! UGGGHHH!!!” She knew the... metal object was something important to her. But what it was or why, she had no idea.

* * *

“Okay, so... That is... oh, come on, you had it!! Remember! What was it called again?!” She banged her head against the wall, frustrated, “I had it! Then I forgot!” She was staring at shiny rock. Well, not quite a rock, but something like a rock. It was shiny, it was a red-y orange kind of colour, and she couldn’t remember what it was called, “Z-Ze... No... Zer... no... Zircin? No no no... Z-Zirsin? Zirki? Shuken? Zircon? ZIRCON!! That’s it!! It’s Zircon!!!” She cheered, “now, keep that in your head! Zircon, Zircon, Zircon...” she repeated the name aloud until she knew it was burned into her memory... wait... burned... that reminded her... “THE FEARS!!! ASS!!! ME!!! I’M THORN!!! I-I...” Thorn fell back to her seat, “I gotta go find them!! Oh God, where are they, shit, I don’t know where I am, god damn it!”

* * *

“The quiet is nice...” Sarah mused as she took in the simple scenery of her room once again. Simple, blank, white walls and simple, blank, brown wooden floorboards. She... Liked it. Sarah wanted to stay. She had her two piece device with her that was playing pleasant, calming noises. It was nice. She... wanted to stay...

* * *

Where he was, Quinten couldn’t say. Well, he sort of knew. He was in the Lonely. They’d all gotten separated as Their leader said they would, and now he didn’t know where he was. He couldn’t remember anyone’s name from the group, only his own, but he supposed that was a good start. When he first realized he was in his own room, there had been an item laid out on a table in front of him. He had trouble remembering what it was at first, but after ever however long, he was finally able to remember what it was. It was a rounded pair of glasses, similar to his own and it was another one of the group’s member’s glasses. He couldn’t remember his name, he couldn’t remember anybody’s name but his own, but once he remembered the glasses, he took it with him and set out to explore the halls of the Lonely.

* * *

“I’m being mocked. That’s it. This is just... some sort of cruel joke. It’s Quinten, I’m sure of it! This is something he’d do!” He paused, “Is it something he’d do? Who even is Quinten? What.... What is happening again?” He looked down at the table in front of him where a small, rounded object was laid down, “What’s this?” It was bright pink in colour, with thin metal bits carefully tuck in, “C-Can I pull...”He turned the object around, inspecting it. Then, he grabbed one of the metal pieces with his nails and it flicked out, slicing his hand, “ACK!” He jumped back at the sudden pain, looking at his hand at the thin cut on his palm, “It hurt me! Augh! What even is it?!”

“DRAIRE!!! We’re in the Lonely! Remember?! The fog house!” Draire? Was that... was that him? Was he Draire? Who was yelling at him? 

“DRAIRE!!” The person yelled again, yet he still saw to person to match the voice to. Then, suddenly, there was a young man in the doorway, staring at him, “Draire! It’s me, Quinten! C’mon, Dre, Remember me!” The young man, Quinten, apparently, quickly got closer to him, and placed his hands on his shoulders, “Please, Dre! Remember!” Quinten looked at him, “Please, witness my presence! Do you want me to speak as I usually do? Will that help?” Quinten was beginning to sound really desperate, but he just... Couldn’t figure out why, “I beg of you, Please, be made aware of my existence, let it be known that I am here and so are you,” He stared at Quinten a moment longer, letting the words sink in,

“QUINTEN!!” His mind became flooded by memories. His class, his family, his friends, the Apocalypse, Jon and Martin, the fears, everything, “Oh God, Quinten, I’m... augh, my hand...” in the moment he remembered everything, he forgot about what he now knew to be the pink switch blade cutting him, “Damn, I... hehe, I... I forgot about the cut,” he brought his hand up, inspecting the cut, 

“Cut? Dre, what happened to your hand?” Quinten grabbed hold of Draire’s injured hand, inspecting the cut, “Dre? How did this happen?”

“Switch blade. Bright pink one, too. Kinda weird colour for a fucking knife,” Quinten’s eyes widened,

“Pink switch blade?” Draire nodded, slightly confused, 

“C-Can I please see it?” 

“Y-Yeah, it’s just... over there, on the table...” Quinten gave a quiet thanks and quickly made his way to the table, picking up the switch blade, 

“T-This is mine... I didn’t notice it was gone, but... God, I’m glad to have it back,” He smiled as he pocketed the knife, then turned back to Draire, “Oh! And I, uh, got your glasses, here,” Draire watched as Quinten pulled out a different pair of glasses, 

“Wha-yeah, I... Thank you...” He grabbed them and quickly put them on, “I... It’s weird to hear you speak so much and so... normally...” 

“ _Yeah, uh... My mom was a bit of a, uh... Cultist so she raised me into the Cult. Thinking back at it, it was probably a cult dedicated to the Desolation, the Lightless Flame. We used to live in a small town so we had our own idea of what the Desolation was, and one of the things we believed was that we had to speak like that. Don’t know why, it’s kinda weird..._ ” Quinten paused and placed his hands in his pockets, “anyways, just kinda... force of habit, I guess,” Draire stared at Quinten fore few seconds, “What? Please, don’t try and say you’re sorry or something, I’ve moved on from that, Y-“

“You’re the kid that killed their family for the cult of flames...” 

“I... Y-Yes, that... that was me. I’ve since had a name change and obviously I’ve moved. Name change really didn’t matter, my name wasn’t publicized but they changed it nonetheless,” Quinten shrugged,

“S-So that knife...”

“What? Are... Are you assuming they let me keep the murder weapon? No-“Quinten pulled the knife out and flicked it open, “I bought this about a year or two ago. It’s probably just the way I was raised, but I feel a lot safer when I have the knife on me,” Draire took in a deep breath, processing the information, 

“R-Right, uh... I’m sorry, there’s... there’s a lot going on...”

“If it’s any comfort, my Mom had wanted specifically for me to kill her, and my dad was an asshole,” 

“Can we please not talk about how you murdered two people?!” Quinten instantly quieted and sighed, nodding his head,

“Right, I do apologize for my rambling,” 

“Ah, now that’s the Quinten I know!” Draire clapped cheerfully,

“Right, well, let’s get going, we gotta find the others, whoever they are,”

“You are unable to recall the names of our companions still?” Draire chuckled,

“No, I’m still unable to recall the names of our companions,” Quinten nodded,

“Let’s go,” Quinten pocketed the knife and took hold of Draire’s hand, “so we don’t get separated,” he quickly reasoned, to which Draire nodded.

* * *

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck, where am I going? I don’t know where I’m going! Gotta keep my mind going! My name is Thorn, Thorn Terrace, It is the fear apocalypse, I am a member of ASS, I am looking for other members, and I-“ A clanking noise broke Thorn from her Rambling, causing her to go on guard, “Who is it! Who’s there! Show yourself!” 

“Thorn?” 

“AHHH!!” Thorn quickly whipped around to see a taller lady with two pigtails standing next to her with another lady with Sunglasses, 

“Thorn! It’s us! Lusmon and Briar! Come on, you can remember us!” The one with the pigtails encouraged, 

“RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT!!! I was just looking for you guys! But something clanged on the floor and it broke my train of thought and I forgot all over again,” 

“That’s be me, sorry. Don’t have any pockets,” Briar held up a Gear in her hands and shrugged, “It was in the room I was in. Don’t know why, after all, Lusmon had a pack of Cigarettes and a lighter in her room,” Briar explained,

“Oh, really? I- I had an Orange Zircon in my room. I left it behind, though,” 

“A what?” Lusmon asked, confused,

“It’s an orange gemstone... anyway, we should get going, shouldn’t we? Still have Draire and Quinten and Sarah to find, right?” Lusmon nodded, 

“Yeah, let’s go!”

* * *

“Thank you for finding me, Jon,” Martin breathed out,

“You’ve already said that, Martin,”

“I-I know, but still...” The two walked in silence for a bit before Martin sighed, “I think the kids mentioned something about a Fog House, this must’ve been what they were talking about... God, Kids went through this, Jon,” 

“Y-Yeah, they di-“

“QUINTEN!!! DRAIRE!!!” Both Jon and Martin instantly perked up, turning their head towards the direction of the shouting,

“Was... was that one of them? Are they in here again?” Martin put emphasis on ‘Again’,

“It would seem s-“

“SARAH?!! QUINTEN!!! DRAIRE!!!”

“Come on, let’s go find them,” Martin nodded, and off they went, following their voices. 

It took much longer than either of them would’ve thought before they ran into Lusmon, Briar and Thorn. They were very much surprised to see him and Jon, of course they were, what were the chances they’d meet again, after all,

“W-We currently looking for Draire and Quinten... And Sarah, we keep forgetting about Sarah...” Lusmon said, taking off her cap to fix her hair, “We suspect Draire and Quinten have found each other, they’re really close,”

“I’d say they were boyfriends,” Briar cut in,

“Really Briar?” Thorn deadpanned, clearly not amused. Briar simply shrugged with a smile on her face as Lusmon began talking again,

“Thorn here is closest with Sarah and we haven’t found her yet, so we’re kinda worried about if we’ll find her or not,” Martin nodded,

“Right, well, Jon, can you see where they are?” 

“I... Kinda... I have a basic idea of where they are, but this fog... I guess it interferes with my, uh... sight,” Jon answered,

“Okay, so, lead us to Sarah!” Jon nodded,

“Follow me,” 

Thorn wasn’t sure how long they were walking in silence, but however long it had been, it was too long, and the quiet was beginning to get to her,

“Can we talk about something? Please? I don’t like this quiet,” Jon let out a sigh and turned to Thorn as they walked,

“Why not give me a statement as we walk?” Thorn shrugged,

“Sure, why not,” 

“Oh... Okay, well, I...” Jon went quiet as he stuck his hands in his pockets and pulled out a tape recorder and clicked it on, “ _Statement of Thorn Terrace, regarding..._ ” He made a circle motion with his other hand, signalling for Thorn to tell him, 

“ _An old Family Heirloom that I ate,_ ” Jon’s eyes widened for a moment as he gave her a strange look, then he looked back to the Recorder,

“ _Satement of Thorn Terrace, regarding an old family heirloom that she ate, statement taken directly from subject. Statement begins..._ ”

“ _Okay, okay, so, before I begin going into what happened, I think some background info is needed. So, there is- was, there was a family heirloom that was passed down for a few generations. It started with my... great great grandmother? I think? Point is, it was really old. It was this weird book,_ ” the moment Thorn mentioned a book she noticed Jon take in a breath and breath it out and roll his eyes, “ _can’t remember what the book was called, it didn’t really have a title as far as I could tell. The cover was completely blank and all that was on the back was the initials T.D._

_Anyways, it was a family heirloom of sorts. It was my mom’s before it was mine, and it was her mom’s before it was my mom’s, and it was her dad’s before it was my mom’s mom’s, and so on. When I turned Ten, the book was given to me, and the first thing I was told upon being given the book was, and I quote, “Do not open the book”. I was Ten, so obviously I wanted to open the book. What kind of Ten year old does as their told, right? So, I opened the book. And I read it. Or well, I read the first few pages before it completely freaked me out and I panicked. I was ten, so you can hardly blame me for ripping out the first few pages and eating them. I didn’t know how to cope with what I was reading, and my first idea was to get rid of the book, but I was scared that if my family found out I had read it that I’d be in trouble. I was also scared that if they found out I read it and I had simply hid it, that they’d find it... so, my stupid little ten year old self decided I could get rid of it without any evidence if I ate it... In retrospect, now that it’s five years later and I’m fifteen, that was obviously not the thing to do, but uuhhh... that’s what I did..._ ”

“Okay... so... would you mind telling me what you read?” Jon asked,

“ _I can’t remember it exactly, but I was a short novel, so about a hundred or so pages, and I only read the first few but I could take a good guess what was on the rest of them. The book was basically about a guy, called Terrace Duly, who was a serial killer that mutilated the bodies of those he killed. Sometimes he’d steal body parts from one kill and then try and stitch them onto the bodies of other kills, or-or sometimes he ate them... like, just... ate them raw. The book described it in such... such... Insane detail, it... it was what scared me so much,_ ” Jon slowly nodded, “Not sure why I reacted that way, it was... weird. But I guess I did have a bad habit of eating random things when I was younger, so I suppose that makes sense,” 

“Right, you had a week in your life when you were hyper fixated on eating mushrooms and only mushrooms, didn’t you?” Thorn slowly nodded,

“Yes... I did... how... how do you know about that?”

“All knowing eye powers, remember?Sorry, didn’t mean to pry, it just came to me,” Thorn sighed,

“ _Yeah, whatever, that’s the end of my statement,_ ” Jon gave a nod,

“ _Statement ends,_ ” and he clicked it off, 

“Did you really eat a cursed book?” Briar was the first to speak up,

“I was ten, I didn’t know how to cope and I was scared I’d get in trouble,”

“That’s still really weird,” Lusmon commented,

“I KNOW!You don’t have to rub it in! Iknow it’s weird, okay!” Briar chuckled and was about to say something when Jon cut her off,

“We’ll be coming up on Sarah soon. Can’t pinpoint when exa- we’re here, never mind,” he pointed to the room in front of them, “I’ll let you four deal with it, it’s not our place to interfere,” Lusmon nodded, 

“Thorn, you go in, you know her best, and too many of us might overwhelm her,” Thorn nodded and took a deep breath in, and entered the room, where soft, quiet music was playing. It was a slow, calming song in another language Thorn didn’t recognize. In the middle of the room, laid on a beanbag chair was Sarah, holding a pink flip phone where the music was coming from, her eyes half closed,

“S-Sarah?” Sarah slowly lifted her head, and looked around the room, “It’s me, Thorn,” Sarah gave her a weird look,

“What are you doing here?” Her voice was even more quiet than usual, and the sadness just dropped from her words and she spoke, “You shouldn’t be here, you don’t care...” She added on, lifting her hand holding the phone and changing the song a piano song accompanied with Japanese lyrics. That was a language Thorn recognized, 

“W-What’s the song playing right now, Sarah? Tell me about it,” Thorn tried her best to smile as she made her way next to Sarah and crouched next to her, 

“Patchwork Staccato...” She answered quietly, “the song before was called Man Nebaisu... can you leave me alone, now?” 

“W-What?! No, Sarah, you need to come back with us!”

“Us? None of you care, whoever you all are. I don’t remember anyone but you, but I doubt the others care either. You sure don’t, so why would they?” Thorn felt her heart drop,

“No no no no!! Sarah, we-we need you! We do care! I...” Sarah turned her head away as the change changed yet another slow piano song, this time with English lyrics. Thorn sat there in silence for a bit, trying to think about what to say and how to articulate her thoughts. As the relative silence went on, she realized the lyrics of the song was... singing about Armageddon... how fitting... it took her until the next song (a weird, quiet yet loud, rock song about... gardening?) for her to finally figure out what to say. She let out a breath she didn’t even realize she was holding and placed her hands on Sarah’s shoulders, causing Sarah to turn to look at her, “I... I love you, Sarah, alright, there, I said it. I love you, and I care almost exclusively for you. Please, return. I don’t even care if you like me back or not, but please know that I truly do care for you, Sarah, please... please return to us...” Sarah’s eyes widened as she looked to Thorn, tears beginning to prick her eyes,

“I... Thorn, I...” Sarah let out a sigh, and smiled Weakly, “I... I think I love you too...” She leaned forward and gave Thorn a hug, who embraced her with tears in her eyes,

“T-Thank you for coming back, Sarah, I... I was so worried, God, I was so worried...” Sarah pulled back from the hug, 

“I- I’m sorry, Thorn, I really am, I... I don’t know what came over me, I just-“

“It’s fine, Sarah. Come, let’s go, do you remember, now? The others are waiting outside,” Sarah nodded, 

“I do remember, thank you,” Thorn gave her own weak smile and then grabbed Sarah’s hand, 

“Let’s go, then,”

* * *

“Hey, my cut’s healed already!” Draire commented, turning his hand over to see there was no mark from where he’d been previously sliced. Quinten simply gave Draire a strange look as Draire held his hand up for him to see, “see? No cut. Not even a scar,” Quinten nodded,

“How much do you suppose we have left to ourselves until we are freed?” This time Draire gave him a strange look, 

“I... what? Normal words, please? I know you can speak normally, now, you’re not fooling me anymore,” Quinten rolled his eyes,

“You are aware of the Intentions behind my words,”

“I really am not, Quinten,” Quinten just shrugged and they continued walking in silence.

It was what Draire could only guess was an hour until they ran into another room. That wasn’t odd, while walking they came across many rooms as they walked, but this room’s door was already open. Curious, Quinten stepped in, and, unable to think of anything to say to stop him, Draire followed. They was no one in the room. Absolutely no one. There was some orange Crystal, though. No words needed to be exchanged between the two of them as they left the room behind, untouched. Free even more walking, Draire noticed something in the distance, in the forever hallways. People. He saw... people,

“Qui-“

“yes, I too am witnessing the group of beings before us in the hallway,” Draire’s face immediately fell,

“When will you cut that act, for gods sake, it’s unnecessary,”

“It is... not an act I intend to put on, but simply a result of my raising and a bad habit,” Draire sighed, 

“Well, it’s a habit you need to stop,” Quinten nodded and said no more, “Come on, That’s the rest of ASS,” Quinten nodded once again, “HEYY!! ASS!!! THE REST OF ASS!!!! OVER HERE!!!!” Quinten flinched at the sudden noise as Draire yelled, grabbing the other’s attention. In no time at all, Briar, Thorn and Lusmon were running down the hall to meet them. Sarah stayed back and walked with... Jon and Martin? 

“We were looking all over for you two!” Lusmon spoke first, as she usually did,

“You owe me ten Bucks, Thorn!” Briar cheered, elbowing the younger lady, “you said they weren’t together!” Thorn’s face turned to one of confusing,

“We never bet on it, though! And we’re in England... or, well... we were... we don’t use Bucks, remember? Also, it’s the apocalypse, you really think I have money on me?” Briar shrugged, 

“It was worth a shot,” 

“What?! What are you saying?! Do-“

“Let’s not fight, please,” Jon’s tied voice broke through, instantly shutting everyone up, “I know where the exit is. Now that we’re all together, we can leave now,” everyone nodded and carefully followed Jon and Martin out of the Fog House.

* * *

“Well, I guess we’re separating again. Once again, it was nice meeting you kids, but me and Jon really must get going...” Martin smiled as he and Jon slowly turned away, waving to ASS, “though it is comforting that you all are in fact competent,” Briar let out a loud, singular “HA!” and then Martin turned around and caught up with Jon who was walking significantly faster than he currently was,

“So... we survived Fog House number 2,” Lusmon spoke up, to which Quinten and Sarah nodded. Briar gave a thumbs up and Thorn shrugged, “Let us continue on!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me?? Projecting my Music taste onto an OC??? It’s more likely than you think!  
> Anyways, for anyone curious, the songs Sarah were listening to were, in order:  
> Man Nebaisu by Monique  
> Patchwork Staccato by Toa  
> Armageddon by EmpathP  
> In the Garden by Red Vox


	3. Roundabout

“Where is Daisy, Jon? I know you Know, you know everything,” Basira pressed, her tone aggressive. Jon sighed,

“It’s... It’s not that simple, Basira, she’s a bit of a blind spot... well, not exactly, but her exact location is... foggy, I guess...” Basira huffed and turned to Martin, 

“How do you deal with him?! He’s insufferable!” Martin shook his head,

“It is annoying, I agree, but I think the fact I love him is a reason why I don’t find it as insufferable,” Martin smiled, causing Basira to roll her eyes,

“Yeah yeah, wha-“ Basira went quiet when her eye caught Jon, who was seemingly staring at nothing, “What’s he doing? Martin, What is he doing? Why is he just... Staring?” Martin drew in a breath,

“He’s seeing something,”

“Well gee, that’s helpful,”

“I don’t know what he’s seeing! I can’t answer that!” Basira huffed and tapped Jon on the shoulder,

“Jon, what are you seeing?” Jon’s head instantly snapped to look at Basira, glaring through her. Then, Jon Blinked and he no longer seemed so out of it and there was life in his eyes once again,

“ASS is nearby,” 

“I’m sorry, What? ASS?? What doe-“

“Are they really? Here?” Jon nodded,

“Will you two explain to me what is going on?!” Basira yelled, frustrated. Jon sighed and closed his eyes briefly before opening them again,

“We ran into this group of kids that called themselves ASS a while ago. They were survivors, we met them just before we went into Jude Perry’s domain, and we met them again in the Lonely,”

“Kids?” Jon nodded and went to speak only to be interrupted,

“YOO!!! JON!!! MARTIN!!!” The three of them all turned their attention to see Briar running straight at them, “Long time no see! Who’s this?”

“THAT IS A CHILD, JON!” 

“Do I really look that young?” Briar questioned, “I’m 18 you know, hardly a kid,” 

“Why is she American?!” Basira cut in,

“Briar, where is the rest of your group?” Briar shrugged, ignoring Basira’s yelling,

“We got attacked by a thing and got separated, but Thorn should be just behind me,” she turned around and just as she had said, Thorn was slowly walking into view. Jon hardly saw Thorn wave to them in the distance, so he waved back, causing Thorn to pick up the pace,

“Will you please fill me in?!” 

“I already told you,” Basira let out a breath and put her head in her hand,

“You did, but that hardly explains what an American child is doing here,”

“I’m 18! I’m not a child! And I was here for school before the whole apocalypse schmix,” Basira gave Briar a strange look,

“Hey you guys! Who’s the new member?!” Thorn was now close enough to yell, and so she did, asking questions about Basira,

“There’s two?!”

“Oh, there’s five of us. Did you not hear me say that we got separated?” Basira opened her mouth to say something but no words came out,

“My names Thorn, by the way, Lady. I can’t image that energy bitch has told you her name, so she’s Briar,”

“THANK YOU!” Basira breathed out, finally glad to have something,

“Can you help us find the rest of ASS, Jon? You can see them, right?” Jon nodded,

“Yes, I can, but I’m trying to help Basira here find someone,”

“Oh... okay, well, I guess we’ll continue searching,” Thorn turned around, “C’mon Briar, let’s go, we wanna find them as soon as possible, lest they get eaten by that monster,” Briar nodded and they continued walking, only for Basira to grab hold of Thorn’s arm,

“Wait! You... You said you were attacked? By a monster?” Thorn nodded, “Where did you last see the monster?” 

“Uh... Well, we were just running away from it, so over there,” Briar spoke up, pointing to the way the two of them just came from, “If you’re Tryin’ to hunt it, I’d be careful,”

“Oh, I don’t care, I made a promise and I’m inclined to keep it,” Briar gave her a strange look,

“You knew the monster...” Briar narrowed her eyes at Basira, 

“Yes, and I promised her I’d kill her, and I intend on keeping my Promise,” Briar shrugged, apparently un-phasedby what Basira has said,

“Hardly anything actually scares her, don’t worry, I, unlike her, am actually concerned that you promised to kill someone, but I don’t ask questions, so if you wanna tag along, then you can join us,” Thorn Added, causing Basira to look to her and Briar then to Jon and Martin, clearly baffled, 

“You comin’?” Briar asked, staring at Basira, 

“I... I guess...” Bastia glanced back at Jon and Martin who shrugged in response to the questioning gaze she sent them, “Okay, yeah, We’ll... follow you...”

“Cool!” Was Briars quick response.

They were walking for quite some time in silence before Martin spoke,

“Can we talk? Or something? I don’t like this silence, it’s... It’s really uncomfortable,”

“And what do you suggest we talk about, Martin?” Basira was quick to snap back, clearly happy with the silence,

“Oh oh oh oh!!!I still haven’t given my statement! You wanna hear mine, now, while we’re walking?!” Briar shouted, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically,

“I... Sure, just... hold on,” Jon answered, digging into his pocket to pull out a tape recorder. He clicked it on, and began,

“Statement of Briar Wood... Really? Briar Wood?” Briar shrugged,

“My parents weren’t creative?” Jon sighed,

“Statement of Briar Wood, Regarding-“

“My childlike fear of the Dark!” 

“ _Statement of Briar Wood, Regarding her childlike fear of the Dark. Statement taken directly from subject, recorded by the Archivist. Statement begins_ ,”

“ _I have an irrational fear of the dark like some little baby, the end,_ ”

“I... Is that... Is that it?”

“Well, I mean, there’s more, but eh,”

“Eh? Is that it, just... Eh?”

“You want to hear more?” Martin gave Jon a strange look as Basira just looked judgmentally at Briar,

“Would it help if I asked a question?” Briar gave a shrug, “alright, _**What is it that happened?**_ ”

“ _Okay, so, I was really young when it happened. I think I was Six. Obviously I was still living in America when it happened. I used to live in Texas, you know where that, right? Yeah, of course you do. So, anyway, I was about Six years old. Like any other small child, I was scared of my closet. Well, I was scared of my closest when it was opened at night time. I could have it open all day and be fine, but when it got dark and the inside of my closet became a pitch black abyss, well, that’s when I closed the doors and I felt safe again._

_ When I say Pitch black abyss, I mean it. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that. It was wild, absolutely Buck wild. One time I decided I wanted to walk into the closest at night time when it was the abyss, and I walked in, and I just kept walking. It was like the closest was infinite. And it was soooo dark! I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face, it was so dark!! It was insane!! I got lost in there, too! I also kept hearing this weird gurgling noises coming from all around, and sometimes I felt a cool breeze as I walked in the abyss. Occasionally I would trip on a ledge I obviously couldn’t see, which was weird.  _

_ I was obviously terrified out of my mind. I was Six, for fucks sake!  _

_ Anyway, My mom discovered I wasn’t in bed and got really angry, then noticed my closet door was opened and stepped in, obviously not expecting to step into an abyss. She walked it for a while as I continued walking through, and we eventually met, both of us terrified but a bit less now that we were together.  _

_Thinking back at it now, I think that’s why we were let out. We walked through the abyss for a while together, and at that point we kinda stopped being afraid cuz we were together, and we weren’t alone anymore. I guess we weren’t feeding whatever entity so they plopped a door in front of us and we obviously went through. We walked this really weird hallway for a little bit. The place was absolutely covered in doors. On the floor, the ceiling, the walls, everywhere. But, me and my mom continued walking, not bothering with the other doors. We eventually got to the end of the hallway, and once we did, we stepped out to be back in my bedroom... We didn’t really talk too much about that whole thing for a while. If I tried telling people about it they chalked it up to me being a child with an active imagination. Eventually though, My mom started telling people cuz she was tried of keeping it bottled up, which led to my Dad divorcing her. Can’t remember the specifics, but my Dad won custody cuz my Mom was deemed Mentally incapable or somethin’... Haven’t spoken to her since we moved here... or, I guess, I haven’t spoken to her since we moved to England, but, uh, yeah, that’s the story!_ ”

“ _Statement... Ends..._ ” Jon clicked off the tape recorder and held a breath. He knew what was coming,

“SHE ENCOUNTERED TWO ENTITIES!! That was the Dark and the Distortion! How did you survive?! Did you not meet Michael or Helen or whoever was the Distortion at that time?!” Jon let out the breath he was holding,

“Basira, if we could n-“

“NO! T-This Child encountered Tw-“

“I’m right here, you don’t have to refer to me as a child. Sure, I was a child when it happened, but I’m 18 now, not a child,” Briar interrupted,

“Okay, but you’re young! And I can’t believe you encounter two entities! AND YOU SURVIVED!!”

“Yeah, well, I m-“

“No, this is insane! You didn’t even meet the Distortion when you and your mom were wandering the hallways!”

“Okay, but lik-“ Thorn tried to but in,

“YOU ARE NOT INVOLVED IN THIS!” Briar instantly shut her down.

* * *

“So, we all agree that that monster used to be a human, right?” 

“I do not believe that the time to question is in the moment,” Quinten responded deadpan,

“I mean... It did have some human traits,” Lusmon commented. Quinten shrugged, “You can’t tell me it didn’t,”

“It... It really didn’t, though,” Sarah said Quietly, causing everyone to look at her, “I mean... It had eyes?” Draire shrugged,

“Yeah, it really didn’t have human traits,” Quinten hummed in agreement, “It seemed like it was trying to speak, but I don’t think it could,” Quinten shrugged, staying silent,

“So, are we gonna look for Briar and Thorn or not?” Lusmon questioned,

“We’re doing that right now,” Draire snarked. Lusmon rolled her eyes,

“Okay smart guy, Where are they then?”

“Fuck if I know, but this is boring as shit,” Draire sassed. Lusmon sighed,

“Do you fear the silent torment of boredom, Dre?” Draire stopped in his tracks and looked to Quinten with a hint of fear,

“No, I fear you being so god damn ominous, you don’t have to speak like that, holy fuck,” Quinten shrugged,

“I apologize, it is not my intention to scare you,” Draire sighed, and took hold of one of Quinten’s hands, 

“Whatever, let’s just... let’s just go,” Quinten gave an eerie smile in response as Lusmon and Sarah watched, equally creeped out by Quinten.

* * *

“Never seen a dead person before... well, no, that’s a lie, I’ve watched classmates die, but that was during this apocalypse and I have become kinda desensitized... Wow, wait, I am not worried at all about the fact you just... Killed the beast-“

“Daisy. Her name was Daisy,” Basira growled,

“Yeah, Daisy... I really should have a more drastic reaction, but I just... Huh...” Jon looked at Briar curiously, as Martin and Basira just listened, clearly concerned,

“Do you think you’ve had an encounter with the End, Briar?” Jon asked,

“ _Maybe? One time I was at this Yard sale. A family was moving away and they were trying to get rid of things they didn’t need. One of the things they were selling was this book that was super underpriced. I was curious so I bought it and read it. Now that I’m thinking about it, it was kinda like the book Thorn described that she ate,_ ” Thorn gave Briar a pointed look at the mention of her eating the cursed book, “ _Detailed the deaths of a bunch of people I didn’t recognize. Don’t think it was as gorey as Thorn’s book, though._

_Anyways, It was book about death, and one day I was reading it when suddenly there was a man at my window? He demanded I give him the book, and I started having flashbacks to the closest, so I, uh... I gave it to him?_ ” Jon let out a long breath and quietly groaned, 

“Any other encounters you wanna tell me about?” Briar stopped as if actually considering it,

“I... don’t think so...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When will we get to Draire’s statement??? Who knows, not you, that’s for sure!!


	4. Happy Ends(?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone can have a bit of a happy ending... as a treat... :)

Thorn wasn’t sure how long they’d been walking, there was no possible way to know, but once Basira had killed Daisy, Basira separated and it was just four of them. With Jon using his all seeing eye powers, they were quickly all reunited with the rest of ASS. They weren’t together for very long when a flash of bright green light blinded them all.

* * *

Thorn was Excited for the first day of Grade 11. She usually didn’t like school, but this year, she was oddly looking forward to go to school. She still didn’t know where her classes were, but at least she actually knew them. Luckily, her dad printed out the sheet with her classes and room numbers. She quickly finished up her breakfast and grabbed her bag, pulling on her sweater and leaving the house, saying good bye to her Dad.

On her walk, she noticed a girl in all black also walking to school that she vaguely recognized,

“Hey, Who you?” she instantly cringed inwardly at her misspeaking, however it seemed that her mistake was found funny by the other girl as she giggled quietly, 

“Name’s Sarah. You’re, uh... You’re Thorn, right?” Thorn nodded,

“Do we have classes together? We in the same grade? I know I’ve seen you before,” Sarah sighed,

“Yes, we had two classes in common last year...”

“Oh, Really?! So do we have any in common this year?” Thorn asked a bit more enthusiastically than she usually found herself expressing, 

“Uh, my classes this semester are Latin 3, Academic Math, Biology and A Free period. Next semester I have... Applied English, History since World War II, Vocal Music and uh... Visual Arts,” 

“REALLY?! What room do you have Latin 3 and the Free Period in?! And when? We might have some classes together!” Thorn cheered. She was finding it strange how enthusiastic she was being with Sarah. She usually had some trouble with expressing her emotions outwardly, so to so easily act how she always wished she could with Sarah, someone she’d never spoken to before, was, well... it was strange, but she wasn’t complaining,

“Um, for Latin 3 I have it in the 156, Period two, week one. My Free Period is in the cafeteria for the last period on week ones,”

“Awwh, my Free period is also last period but it’s in AR, not Caf’,” Sarah shrugged,

“BUT!! We have Latin together!” Sarah’s face lit up,

“Really?” Thorn nodded, “I’ll see you in a bit then, my first class this week is, uh...” Thorn paused to look at the paper with her timetable on it, “my first class is Math... augh... well, gotta go, the Math hallway is-“

“Where is your math class?”

“I’m taking Applied, you said AcademicMath for yourself, right?” Sarah nodded,

“It would seem we’re still going the same direction, though!”

* * *

“God, I don’t... still haven’t gotten the layout of this high school, ugh,” Draire looked up from his timetable only to see that he was outside class 154 in the language hallway and not class 123 in the arts hallway, “where the fuck?” He quietly mumbled to himself,

“Is assistance required?” 

“EAH!” Draire Quickly turned around at the sudden voice so close to him, “Y-Yes, I would like help, please,” The other guy, with weird yellow eyes, Draire observed, simply nodded, and started walking, motioning for Draire to follow him, “uh... Do... Do you know where-.... No... uh... Guy? Buddy? Sir? Man? Boy?” The nameless student stopped in his tracks when Draire called him Boy,

“One is not to speak to myself in such a tone and usage of such banished and forbidden words is not prohibited,” Draire gulped. If this was some sick joke that this older student was playing, it was not funny. He’d already been through his own supernatural and spooky experience just last year when his Grandma was replaced without anyone noticing somehow. He didn’t have it in him to go through another thing so soon, “I must assume that you understand,” The guy added, Giving him a very strange look. Draire nervously nodded and the other guy smiled ominously then continued walking, once again motioning for Draire to follow him. They were walking for just a minute or two when the guy stopped in his tracks outside a class... Room 123...

“I... Thank you, Sir?” The guy nodded silently. Sir it was, “Thank you, Sir,” he said again, more confidently. Sir gave him another nod and gestures towards the door before turning around and leaving. That was decided, then. Draire was terrified of Sir.

* * *

Lusmon laid in bed. She just didn’t want to get up. Her Fiancée, Perry, was out on the porch smoking, and Lusmon didn’t want to go out into said porch where she was smoking. She hated the smell of cigarettes, Perry knew that. It was the reason Perry smoked on the porch, but Lusmon still scolded her every time. Perry was well aware of everything smoking did. She knew about the lung cancer and early wrinkles and yellowed teeth and weak stamina and everything else. But, for whatever reason, Lusmon just... couldn’t get Perry to care enough to even make an attempt to stop. It annoyed her, but she loved Perry, there was no doubt about that, and she didn’t want to leave the lady just because she was smoking. Yes, it was a bad habit, an absolutely terrible habit, but Lusmon loved Perry too much. The door opening snapped Lusmon from her thoughs and she looked up to see Perry coming back in,

“Mornin’, Perry...” Perry simply grunted in response as she sat down next to where Lusmon stayed laying down, “You really do nee-“

“Yeah yeah, I know, and I don’t care, and you know I don’t care,” Lusmon breathed out,

“Can you please try? For me? Please?” Perry looks down at Lusmon and let out a breath, still tinted with Cigarette smoke,

“I... Fine, I’ll make an attempt for you,” She closed her eyes and leaned back as Lusmon’s eyes lit up,

“Really?!” Perry nodded, “Perry!! Thank you so much!” Lusmon rolled over on top of where Perry was now laid down, smothering her with a hug, “Ohh, I’m so glad!! I’ll help you though it!” Perry raised her arms to hug Lusmon back, and when Perry’s hold eventually turned to a struggle against Lusmon suffocating her, she pushed Lusmon away. Lusmon stayed on top of Perry, using her arms to support herself over top her Fiancée, “I want to kiss you but you just finished smoking, and I hate the taste of cigarette smoke,” She commented, looking into Perry’s eyes, 

“Then don’t,” Perry sassed back, pulling Lusmon back into a long lasting hug.

* * *

“ ‘Kay Dad, I’m headin’ to school now! See ya!” Briar shouted to her dad as she opened the door to leave, 

“Alright, see you later BW, Learn Lots!” Her dad called back, 

“Yeah yeah, see ya!” Brair called back and then closed the door, not wanting to begin banter with her dad when she was already kind of running late. 

She was about halfway to the school when her phone began vibrating in her pocket. A phone call,

“Hello?”

“Briar!! Baby, It’s you!”

“MOM?!”

“Yes, Yes, it’s me! Your Mother!” Brair stopped her walking and found a nearby light post to lean up against, 

“How.. How did you get this?” Briar asked. It took a moment for her mom to answer,

“I doubt your father’s informed you, but I was released from the mental hospital last year. I stopped talking about what we went through and they said I was no longer experiencing my delusions. They let me go, and I got back in touch with Becky, you remember her, don’t you?”

“Who?”

“Becky. She was a family friend. Anyway, I got back in touch with her, and turns out she’s still in touch with dad, so I asked her to get your number and she did! It’s so nice to hear your voice again, dear!” Her mom added on, “Tell me, have you been doing well?” Brair nodded. Her mom stayed silent for a few seconds until she realized it was a call and her mom couldn’t see her,

“Uh, I’ve been well. Had another weird experience with a book I bought at a yard sale, but it wasn’t as bad as the last one,”

“You did?! Te-“

“Mom, I have to get to school, I’m already running late, I’m sorry,” Briar’s mom sighed very audibly,

“I see... Call me back later, then?”

“I... I will, Mom, I will,”

* * *

The whole class was chattering away. Jon wasn’t sure what to do. Sure, he’d smote fear avatars and managed to reset the world after killing Jonah Magnus, but the stares of two dozen children glaring at him curiously was nothing like he’d been through, and- He almost choked when he watched Thorn and Sarah walk in. They shouldn’t remember him, right? They shouldn’t have their memories, right? There wa- Jon could’ve sworn his soul left his body as he watched Quinten walk in. Three. Three members of ASS were all taking Latin 3 during the same period, in the same semester, in his class. Great. He dreaded when Martin would eventually ask him about his first day at work as the English, Latin and Geography Substitute teacher. He had no doubt in his mind that Martin would laugh. He let out a sigh and stood up from his chair, ready to begin his first class.


End file.
